Sunday, February 28, 2016

Very exciting! After many years of searching for records of my convict ancestor in his home town of New Ross, Ireland, in the wee hours of yesterday morning, I finally found a description of the crime he committed in 1834 that earned him a place on a convict ship the following year, bound for Australian with one of his mates. Unfortunately, he wasn't a close-to-innocent type. With the help of two mates, it looks like he broke the jaw of an army officer (British?) by throwing a stone at him. Can't say I'm proud of what he did, but I'm very pleased to have found a record of it, thanks to Irish newspapers being online via FindMyPast.

According to articles published in November 1834, Thomas Reily committed the crime on the outskirts of the town of New Ross, with some of his mates, on Monday 11 August 1834. Thomas and his mates apparently threw a stone at Private Treleaver and broke his jaw. However, it appears that there were some rumours that Private Treleaver had been murdered. The following article notes that he was not murdered; he was injured and was recovering in the Waterford Hospital.

Town of New Ross, photographs taken in July 2012

From the article below, I found out that:

The assault on Private Treleaver happened before the execution of Meany, at Shamboe. I'm not sure who Meany was or why he was mentioned in this article.

Thomas was described as being in a group of "four young men of loose character".

Private Treleaver was injured to the extent that he needed hospital treatment.

The Pilot, 27 August 1834, page 3

Transcription:

We are happy to state, that, on inquiry relative to the statement of the murder of a soldier at New Ross, we find that no such thing had occurred. The following is the incident which gave rise to the mistake: - On the evening of Monday week, previous to the execution of Meany, at Shamboe, Private Treleaver, of the 32d Regiment, was in company with a female in a field adjoining that town, when he was assaulted by four young men of loose character, who threw a stone, which struck him in the mouth, and severely injured him. He is now in hospital at Waterford, and is in an improving condition. - Waterford Mirror

A couple of months later, the report of the assault on Private Treleaver was reported on page 2 of The Waterford Mail on Wednesday 5 November 1834.

Transcription:

At the New Ross Quarter Sessions, on Saturday 25 October, Thomas Reily, Patrick Daily, and Patrick Spruhan, were tried and convicted for assaulting a Private Treleaver, of the 32D Regt. On the evening of Monday, the 11th August in the outlets of New Ross, by throwing a stone which fractured the prosecuto's jaw. Reily and Daily were sentenced to be transported for seven years and Spruhan to be imprisoned and kept to hard labour in the jail of Wexford for 9 months.

From the article above, I found out that:

Thomas spelled his surname, Reily, which is often the way it was spelled in his Australian records.

Thomas' mates were Patrick Daily and Patrick Spruhan. They threw a stone at Treleavar which fractured his jaw.

The assault took place on Monday 11 August 1834, on the edges of the town of New Ross.

Thomas and Patrick were tried for convicting Private Treleavar and were sentenced to transportation for 7 years.

Spruhan was sentences to 9 months of hard labour at Wexford jail.

The crime and its outcome was also reported on page 1 of The Tipperary Free Press on Saturday 8 November 1834.

Transcription:

At the New Ross Quarter Sessions, on Saturday 25 October, Thomas Reily, Patrick Daily, and Patrick Spruhan, were tried and convicted for assaulting a Private Treleaver, of the 32D Regt. On the evening of Monday, the 11th August in the outlets of New Ross, by throwing a stone which fractured the prosecuto's jaw. Reily and Daily were sentenced to be transported for seven years and Spruhan to be imprisoned and kept to hard labour in the jail of Wexford for 9 months.

Thomas' trial for assault in Wexford took place on 27 October 1834. Wexford is about 40km away from the town of New Ross, where the crime was committed. He seems to have been tried alongside Patrick Daley. Both were charged with assault, both tried on the same day, and both were from Wexford. Both were given 7 years as their sentence and both tattoos.

Wexford Courthouse, photographs taken in July 2012

Wexford town, photographs taken in July 2012

Both Patrick Daley and Thomas Reilly are listed together on the list of convicts who travelled on the Lady McNaughten ship to Sydney.

Thomas received his certificate of freedom on 22 March 1842.

His mate, Patrick Daley, received his Certificate of Freedom on 3 September 1842, a few months after Thomas Reily received his.

I followed Helen's instructions to map some of the places where I know my great-grandfather, Walter William (or William Walter or many other names he used) NORTHCOTE during the time he spent in NSW. This is the only photograph I have of the man (a bad copy of a photcopy of a photograph):

The instructions on Helen's blogpost were easy to follow. You end up with something like this:

When you click on each of the red placemarkers, other information appears such as the date and event description (or whatever you add to the .csv file that you upload).

What a great way to show the trails of an ancestor's life. Thanks Helen for taking the time to write these instructions and thanks to Janelle for telling me about the blogpost!

Sunday, February 7, 2016

One of my grandmothers, my paternal grandmother, Ellen Mary/Maria Northcote (nee Keneally), had a job for a while during the 1920s at the Perdriau Rubber Company at Drummoyne (Birkenhead) in Sydney putting bladders in balls. She enjoyed the work but she especially enjoyed the company of the other workers.

My other grandmother, my maternal grandmother, Lily Anne Walters (nee Kingsbury) had a job for while during the 1920s or 1930s in a factory on Missenden Road at Camperdown in Sydney putting tongues in tins.

About Perdriaus

According to the article, The Harbour that Worked (2004), Perdriaus was one of the largest employers in Sydney in the 1920s:

"The factory at Birkenhead Point (now a shopping centre) was started in the late 1890’s by Henry Perdriau to mould India-rubber goods. He moved progressively into making rubber products for cars including shock absorbers, springs and radiator hoses and started the manufacture of rubber tyres around 1914. In 1928 the factory was one of Sydney's largest employers with a payroll of 2300. The following year the company merged with Dunlop to form the Dunlop Perdriau Rubber Company Limited and after another merger in 1941, it became Dunlop Rubber Australia Limited. "

Click on the link below to see a photo of what it was like inside the Perdriau Rubber Factory in Melbourne in the 1920s. I guess these conditions were similar to the working environment that my grandmother worked in at the Sydney factory.

My mother, Margaret Anne Northcote (nee Walters) also worked at the Dunlop Factory at Drummoyne (Birkenhead Point), years later in 1960-1961 in a typing position in the shipping department. She remembers that the word "tyre" was hardly ever mentioned. Instead, the terms covers, flaps and tubes were used to describe various parts of the tyre. At the time when she was working there, there were 1600 employees at Dunlop, according to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birkenhead_Point).

Tongues in tins and bladders in balls ... if you listen to the song below, Buttons and Bows, it works quite well if you substitute "tongues in tins and bladders in balls" for "rings and things and buttons and bows". Just a bit of fun.

What jobs did your grandmothers do?

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About Me

My passion is genealogy and family history. I host a podcast about Australian family history, Genies Down Under. In my day job, I work as a lecturer and a researcher in higher education, teaching pre-service teachers.